MSc Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology
This MSc. programme is dedicated to providing a thorough grounding in the knowledge and application of psychological principles to sport, exercise and performance settings in order to enhance wellbeing and performance. It seeks to equip candidates with a sound understanding of theory and research and develop core competencies and professional skills across a range of key domains including the following: motor cognition and skill acquisition; performance psychology; exercise and mental health; applied positive psychology; organisational behaviour and wellbeing; professional issues and ethics; and research design and methods. The core aims of the programme are to create an outstanding and distinctive learning experience through innovations in teaching (e.g. e-learning module in applied positive psychology), instilling a scientist practitioner approach across both sport and exercise contexts and highlighting the role of ethical considerations in practice.
The MSc. aims to:
- Provide a learner-focused and connected curriculum to enable students to develop their capacity to think critically and acquire a broad set of attributes as identified by the UL as knowledgeable, proactive, innovative, responsible, articulate and collaborative.
- Extend the traditional remit of sport psychology by focusing on performance restoration, resilience and mental health, rather than exclusively targeting performance enhancement.
- Enhance the understanding of mental health challenges in sport contexts using a positive psychology approach.
- Develop a multidisciplinary mode of graduate enquiry coupled with an ethical scientist-practitioner basis.
- Lead the provision of postgraduate training in this evolving field of Performance psychology.
- Provide stage one of the recognition process for sport and exercise psychologists for PSI and BPS.
- Include the appropriate skills to enable graduates to develop a case study submission as part of their application for professional membership of the Irish Institute of Sport.